Encyclopedia > Gothic novel

  Article Content

Gothic novel

The Gothic novel can be said to have been born with The Castle of Otranto[?] (1764) by Horace Walpole.

Prominent features of many gothic novels are mystery, doom, decay, old buildings with ghosts in them, madness, hereditary curses and so on.

Examples:

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey parodizes the Gothic novel by setting up the atmosphere of doom and sweeping it away with hearty common sense and normalcy.

In England, the Gothic novel as a genre had largely played itself out by 1840. It left a lasting legacy, however, in works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. From these, the Gothic genre strictly considered gave way to modern horror fiction.

External link



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

... allied himself with the Ottomans in 1542. In 1543 Charles allied himself with Henry VIII and forced Francis to sign the Truce of Crepy[?]. Charles later signed ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 65.9 ms